Writing a book on Radio Promotions

[Earl Pilkington]

Help!
I am putting together a book of radio promotion ideas from around the world.
I hope to release the e-book online for less than $20 Australian through my website.

Originally I thought this would be a list of around maybe 100 promotions in it - but it has grown and grown to over 2,000+ promotional ideas.

I was wondering if you knew of any promotions that blew you away with how good they were, or how badly they went - just any ideas at all, as I said I have a lot of ideas already (and it grows daily), but I feel I am missing some really good ideas - I know they are out there! Even from the 60s, 70's, 80's, etc - Of course I will credit this forum and you if you submit an idea that I don't already have.

I don't need full mechanics - as my notes are simple - like this... I will expand on the ideas later.
NAME: “MUSIC SCRABBLE”
TYPE: CUE TO CALL
DETAILS: 3 or 4 words from songs are edited together to form a short sentence, callers must identify each song IN ORDER to win the prize.

Looking forward to your help. Cheers.

 

[fordranger797]

Help!
I am putting together a book of radio promotion ideas from around the world.
I hope to release the e-book online for less than $20 Australian through my website.

Originally I thought this would be a list of around maybe 100 promotions in it - but it has grown and grown to over 2,000+ promotional ideas.

I was wondering if you knew of any promotions that blew you away with how good they were, or how badly they went - just any ideas at all, as I said I have a lot of ideas already (and it grows daily), but I feel I am missing some really good ideas - I know they are out there! Even from the 60s, 70's, 80's, etc - Of course I will credit this forum and you if you submit an idea that I don't already have.

I don't need full mechanics - as my notes are simple - like this... I will expand on the ideas later.
NAME: “MUSIC SCRABBLE”
TYPE: CUE TO CALL
DETAILS: 3 or 4 words from songs are edited together to form a short sentence, callers must identify each song IN ORDER to win the prize.

Looking forward to your help. Cheers.

Not sure if it’s what you’re looking for or not, but the absolute best radio contest that I’ve ever heard happens on a classic hits radio station in Toronto, Canada. The morning host plays the “Thousand Dollar Minute,” where someone calls in, and then has 60 seconds to answer 10 questions for the opportunity to win $1,000. Most contestants only get a few of the questions right, but only if they only get three questions correct, they get the equivalent of $10 per question (which they can keep or donate to charity).

Overall, it’s a contest that always made me want to listen in-depth.

 

[Earl Pilkington]

Like it FordRanger797 - its nice and simple and I think that - that - is the key - keeping comps simple. I also like the choice of keeping it or donating it to charity - unfortunately the prize pigs on our stations go for the cash - or quickly sell the prizes they win.
Thanks for contributing.

 

[b-turner]

Talk about one that crashed and burned...I'm working the #1 CHR in a college town (Texas A&M University). We run a huge Christmas promotion: A brand new car (don't recall the vehicle but mid-range price with all the bells and whistles). Inside the car are about 30 wrapped presents.

Follow along here: When you take a look at this car at the mall, a person from the station has a list of the rules and all the gifts in the car and will gladly give you a copy.

Take those papers. The car dealer will tell you the price of the car with tax and title out the door. That list of stores and the presents in the car is listed on the other sheet. Simply go to these places and ask price with tax. When you have the price of the car and all the presents, add it all up and write that number down on your entry form.

From all the entrants, those who correctly guess the total price of the car and all the presents to the penny wins it all. In the event more than one have the correct answer, a winner will be chosen at random from all correct entries.

Literally about 45 minutes of work and you could win all of this...about $16,000 in 1986 dollars.

Our listeners were too lazy to do the work. Nobody submitted the winning entry. The car went back to the dealer and we picked at random to give away the presents in the car.

This was, it seems, never spoken of again until I brought it up.

 

[davideduardo]

Looking forward to your help. Cheers.

Done originally in Spanish, so no clever names:

Identify the song
New one every day.
At start, one note from song hook is given. Next time, after an hour or several hours, that note and one more. Then 3 notes, then 4.
Each time, the prize increases by a set dollar amount.
So song can't be identified from the instruments in the original, all notes played on a studio keyboard.
Each time the note(s) play, station takes a random number call and listener tries to answer. If they don't identify song, they all have to wait for the next note sequence.
If there is an early winner in the day, new one starts. If nobody wins by 7 PM, the prize is added to the next morning's start.

 

[Mikey Radio]

Talk about one that crashed and burned...I'm working the #1 CHR in a college town (Texas A&M University). We run a huge Christmas promotion: A brand new car (don't recall the vehicle but mid-range price with all the bells and whistles). Inside the car are about 30 wrapped presents.

Follow along here: When you take a look at this car at the mall, a person from the station has a list of the rules and all the gifts in the car and will gladly give you a copy.

Take those papers. The car dealer will tell you the price of the car with tax and title out the door. That list of stores and the presents in the car is listed on the other sheet. Simply go to these places and ask price with tax. When you have the price of the car and all the presents, add it all up and write that number down on your entry form.

From all the entrants, those who correctly guess the total price of the car and all the presents to the penny wins it all. In the event more than one have the correct answer, a winner will be chosen at random from all correct entries.

Literally about 45 minutes of work and you could win all of this...about $16,000 in 1986 dollars.

Our listeners were too lazy to do the work. Nobody submitted the winning entry. The car went back to the dealer and we picked at random to give away the presents in the car.

This was, it seems, never spoken of again until I brought it up.

I remember you mentioning this one quite a while ago. I LOL'd then, and I just LOL'd again when re-reading it

 

[b-turner]

Adding to that crash and burn, it seems quite a few started out to get the price on everything but nobody went to every shop. The stores were so bombarded, the employees knew the amount and would give it to the person asking. The car dealership stopped giving the price by phone in order to get the person on the lot where they told the salesperson they were only interested in the price with TT&L. The salesperson told them.

I don't know the cut off for too much but I think about 30 is too much, at least for bunches of folks in a Texas college town in the mid-1980s.

We'd even have people at the booth when I was manning it trying to make a guess at the amount, I'd tell them how to get it right to the penny and perhaps win. They'd write down a guess anyway.

 

[Earl Pilkington]

Done originally in Spanish, so no clever names:

Identify the song
New one every day.
At start, one note from song hook is given. Next time, after an hour or several hours, that note and one more. Then 3 notes, then 4.
Each time, the prize increases by a set dollar amount.
So song can't be identified from the instruments in the original, all notes played on a studio keyboard.
Each time the note(s) play, station takes a random number call and listener tries to answer. If they don't identify song, they all have to wait for the next note sequence.
If there is an early winner in the day, new one starts. If nobody wins by 7 PM, the prize is added to the next morning's start.

Cheers - amazing! I love this concept.

 

[Earl Pilkington]

Adding to that crash and burn, it seems quite a few started out to get the price on everything but nobody went to every shop. The stores were so bombarded, the employees knew the amount and would give it to the person asking. The car dealership stopped giving the price by phone in order to get the person on the lot where they told the salesperson they were only interested in the price with TT&L. The salesperson told them.

I don't know the cut off for too much but I think about 30 is too much, at least for bunches of folks in a Texas college town in the mid-1980s.

We'd even have people at the booth when I was manning it trying to make a guess at the amount, I'd tell them how to get it right to the penny and perhaps win. They'd write down a guess anyway.

Yup - keep it simple will always win out on jumping through hoops to win a prize

 

[westendmed@aol.]

Talk about one that crashed and burned...I'm working the #1 CHR in a college town (Texas A&M University). We run a huge Christmas promotion: A brand new car (don't recall the vehicle but mid-range price with all the bells and whistles). Inside the car are about 30 wrapped presents.

Follow along here: When you take a look at this car at the mall, a person from the station has a list of the rules and all the gifts in the car and will gladly give you a copy.

Take those papers. The car dealer will tell you the price of the car with tax and title out the door. That list of stores and the presents in the car is listed on the other sheet. Simply go to these places and ask price with tax. When you have the price of the car and all the presents, add it all up and write that number down on your entry form.

From all the entrants, those who correctly guess the total price of the car and all the presents to the penny wins it all. In the event more than one have the correct answer, a winner will be chosen at random from all correct entries.

Literally about 45 minutes of work and you could win all of this...about $16,000 in 1986 dollars.

Our listeners were too lazy to do the work. Nobody submitted the winning entry. The car went back to the dealer and we picked at random to give away the presents in the car.

This was, it seems, never spoken of again until I brought it up.

Probably too much work. I saw a similar one that was done by a station in Australia. It was a SUPER SHOPPER promotion where you went to the sponsoring grocery store, got a form and had to get the prices of some select grocery items from inside the store. Probably 10 items were in key areas of the store. You dropped off your completed form right at the store. It was simple and easy to do. Not sure what the winner got but the store got a lot of traffic and people visiting areas where the store wanted to move products and where special displays were located. If you want to see a MAGA promotion that aired on over 700 stations in the US and Canada , look at the YouTube video "Radio Memories Hiney Wine". Another big promotion was BRIDAL FAIR that ran on a lot of stations and generated revenue from new business in the first quarter.

 

[davideduardo]

Another big promotion was BRIDAL FAIR that ran on a lot of stations and generated revenue from new business in the first quarter.

Like Community Club Awards, that was a sales promotion, not a contest. Strictly for revenue creation and not, particularly, for audience enhancement and growth.

 

[davideduardo]

Cheers - amazing! I love this concept.

Another one, originated by Gordon McLendon.

I did the "Tropical Treasure" on HCFV "Canal Tropical" in Quito. Every few hours during the day, a clue was given to the location of a certificate that was worth about the same amount as the monthly minimum wage. The certificate was in an emptied vitamin capsule, stuck somewhere public and accessible.

As the week wore on, it became more and more obvious what part of the city the prize was in. And, later, what specific area in a neighborhood and so on.

One we put the capsule with the prize stuck under a branch on a plant in the main square of the city, across from the presidential palace. As the clues closed in a huge group of Central University students marched on the square in protest. They were followed by the government's water canons.

The people already there looking for the prize got wild. They tore down the plants and trees and were mixed with the students and the soldiers.

The plaza had to be replanted. The students were blamed.. Someone showed up an hour or two later to claim his money.

 

[westendmed@aol.]

Don't forget HINEY WINE. It got stations ratings and revenue plus lots of exposure in the press and on TV. It aired on over 700 stations in the US and Canada.

 

[davideduardo]

Don't forget HINEY WINE. It got stations ratings and revenue plus lots of exposure in the press and on TV. It aired on over 700 stations in the US and Canada.

But that was not a contest or a promotion. It was a short-form comedy bit or feature that stations inserted into regular programming using their own talent usually.

 

[westendmed@aol.]

But that was not a contest or a promotion. It was a short-form comedy bit or feature that stations inserted into regular programming using their own talent.

It was more than that: Hiney Wine T-shirts were sold at remotes and drew hundreds of fans, so it created sales and got walking billboards out for the station at a profit since stations made a profit on the t-shirt sales; most stations ended up with at least one TV story and one newspaper story in their market; it was a ratings success, boosting the ratings of a lot of morning DJ's; stations set up retail outlets to sell a complete line of merchandise that also had the stations call letters on them; it was sold on a market exclusive, so only one station could use it; it had lots of contests and promotions associated with it like the national HINEY WINE jingle contest and be a guest commentator for the Winery; stations generated revenue off of Hiney Wine remotes, stockholder parties, Mr and Ms Hiney Contests in bars, selling adjacencies to the fixed position Hiney Wine commercials. It was a lot more than a programming feature.....this Hiney had a lot of legs to it. It was not just a promotional feature.....it was multi-promotional. You should look a little deeper into this Hiney.

 

[davideduardo]

It was more than that: Hiney Wine T-shirts were sold at remotes and drew hundreds of fans, so it created sales and got walking billboards out for the station at a profit since stations made a profit on the t-shirt sales; most stations ended up with at least one TV story and one newspaper story in their market; it was a ratings success, boosting the ratings of a lot of morning DJ's; stations set up retail outlets to sell a complete line of merchandise that also had the stations call letters on them; it was sold on a market exclusive, so only one station could use it; it had lots of contests and promotions associated with it like the national HINEY WINE jingle contest and be a guest commentator for the Winery; stations generated revenue off of Hiney Wine remotes, stockholder parties, Mr and Ms Hiney Contests in bars, selling adjacencies to the fixed position Hiney Wine commercials. It was a lot more than a programming feature.....this Hiney had a lot of legs to it. It was not just a promotional feature.....it was multi-promotional. You should look a little deeper into this Hiney.

Yes, it was a multi-faceted feature and got lots of support from the providers. But in that era, loads of morning shows and stations and promotions got big promotion, including merchandise, stunts and the like for sales, publicity and word of mouth.

That was back in the day of fewer stations, much higher revenue and no new media competition. I can think of many local promotions on stations in the 60's and 70's that were comparable.

 

[Mikey Radio]

David is giving a speech at the NAB Show New York in Oct. about preserving radio history. Perhaps this HINEY WINE thing deserves a quick mention during the keynote remarks?

Seriously though, I agree with David here. I grew up in a smaller market and I remember in the 1980s we all listened to Dr. Demento every Sunday night almost religiously so we could chat about it at school the next day. As a stunt, when the morning guy from the local Top 40 station took a vacation one year, they turned it into a promotion, created a story that he'd been abducted and listeners would be given a clue each day to help determine his whereabouts and to help free him. That Friday afternoon they held an event at a shopping mall where they'd explain what had happened to him (the story from the promotion - not the fact that he'd been off with his wife enjoying a vacation) and would be welcoming the guy back to the area after his "ordeal" and so listeners could find out who won the contest to help find him, there'd be prize giveaways etc. The center concourse of that mall was PACKED with thousands of people who'd bought into the whole thing, played along with the promotion all week and were there to greet their favorite morning host. Again, that was in a small market. That particular station maintained its original call letters from the 1960s through the early 1990s but has been sold 3x since, changed calls I think 4x and has been satellite fed and/or automated for nearly 25 years. As David correctly states, the days when that particular promo and things like HINEY WINE were seemingly a huge deal, was also a very different time in broadcasting - when the world in general was a much smaller place and radio was king.

 

[awsherrill]

As a stunt, when the morning guy from the local Top 40 station took a vacation one year, they turned it into a promotion, created a story that he'd been abducted and listeners would be given a clue each day to help determine his whereabouts and to help free him.

KIKX in Tucson eventually lost its license after doing a similar "DJ kidnapping" stunt in 1974. Those sorts of stunts that depend on misleading the public (and sometimes law authorities) are a very bad idea.

 

[Mikey Radio]

KIKX in Tucson eventually lost its license after doing a similar "DJ kidnapping" stunt in 1974. Those sorts of stunts that depend on misleading the public (and sometimes law authorities) are a very bad idea.

When doing the promotion I mentioned above, from what I remember, they did it in a lighthearted way and as a tie in with a local TV station where listeners of the radio station were encouraged to watch the evening news each night to get clues to solve the mystery, etc. It wasn't done in such a manner where listeners would think a missing persons report was filed, there was a tri-state manhunt for the abductors or lisenters would be worked into a tizzy and call the police, etc....Though to your point I can see how something like this might go awry if not done correctly.